{"id":21855,"date":"2004-02-27T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:10:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T07:10:36","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:10:36","slug":"blacklisting_of_mel_gibson_should_ve_outraged_me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/02\/27\/blacklisting_of_mel_gibson_should_ve_outraged_me\/","title":{"rendered":"Blacklisting of Mel Gibson Should\u2019ve Outraged Me"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The story in the New York Times was all about how Mel Gibson will never work in that town again because of his movie. The New York Times quoted, unnamed Hollywood executives saying he\u2019s ruined his career; he doesn\u2019t have a chance here, and the story. The story mentioned that Hollywood is “mostly Jewish,” and Gibson has produced a movie that they\u2019re not going to like, and this is going to ruin his career. Now, the question — or the thing I want to explain to you is why I didn\u2019t bother mentioning this to you yesterday, and it\u2019s my fault, and it\u2019s my error, and I want to explain the error not excuse it. I didn\u2019t think that was anything new. <\/line>I didn\u2019t think when I read that, I didn\u2019t think that was odd. I did not think it odd whatsoever that the Hollywood intelligentsia would blacklist a guy and would say so, quoting without attribution. We don\u2019t know who it was that said — two big muckety-muck producers, studio heads or whatever, said that he doesn\u2019t have a chance of working in this town again. He\u2019s really damaging his career. This movie is damaging Gibson\u2019s career because of the subject matter. And, frankly, folks, it didn\u2019t surprise me. That\u2019s why it didn\u2019t register to me to even mention to you, because that has been something that I seem to have just accepted as the reality of political life in America. <\/line>And I will admit to you that in my case, maybe I\u2019ve personalized it too much because I know full well where I\u2019m not going to be allowed, where I can\u2019t go. I\u2019m talking about career-wise. I know full well what I\u2019m not going to be allowed to do because of what I believe. I know full well. We\u2019ve seen it happen. I\u2019ve seen it happen. I know full well where I can go say whatever I want to say and where I can\u2019t. I know full well what\u2019s — and not just me, but other conservatives. We\u2019ve all heard the stories of how conservatives in Hollywood have to stay quiet.<\/line><\/p>\n

They will not go public unless they\u2019re a huge box office because they don\u2019t want to ruin their chances of getting work. So I read this and it frankly didn\u2019t surprise me. So it didn\u2019t register. It just seemed to me, “Well, this is the way it is.” You know certain people run certain areas of business, and if you don\u2019t agree with them politically or if you\u2019re not what they want you to be, you don\u2019t have a chance of entering that business and scoring well. That\u2019s been a reality for me for the 15 years I\u2019ve been doing this program. And so it didn\u2019t stand out, and I apologize because it should have outraged me. <\/line>My reaction should not <\/emphasize>have been, “Ho-hum. This is just more of the same,” and the reason it wasn\u2019t is simply because I personalized it. I did not stop to think of it in the terms of what it meant for Mel Gibson, because again it didn\u2019t strike me as news, even though it was flat out, right there in print. I should have been outraged. Well, I was outraged. I should have brought it to your attention. I should have told you about it. I\u2019m sure some of you have heard of it by now anyway, because it further helps to establish the point. It further helps to establish the dividing lines that exist that we have been trying to discuss and tell you about for the whole 15-plus years that I have been doing this program. <\/line>Well, the Washington Times story today sort of adds fuel to the fire. This is even better, in a way. “Early detractors of Mel Gibson\u2019s movie are backing away from their critical remarks now, after the movie grossed a record-setting $26.6 million on its first day.” And I have read stories today from movie experts and all these trade publications who were asked if they were surprised it did this well, and they were all saying that they were stunned. They were literally stunned. They couldn\u2019t believe it would do this well. Nobody in Hollywood thought this movie would rate anything. Nobody thought anybody would be interested in it. Nobody thought anybody would want to go see it, not in any great numbers, and they\u2019re all stunned, and they\u2019re not just making it up. They generally are stunned. <\/line><\/p>\n

Now, you talk about flyover country and the East Coast and the West Coast being out of touch. I\u2019m telling you, folks, there is a whole segment of this population that not only is denigrated, looked down upon, impugned, laughed at and made fun of, it\u2019s basically been ignored now and it\u2019s thought not to exist, and that is a traditional conservative Christian population — which is a very, very, very, very very large segment of this country. It\u2019s just assumed they\u2019re not there. It\u2019s just assumed that they don\u2019t do things. They\u2019re not worth marketing to. They just don\u2019t exist, and these people are stunned! These experts<\/emphasize>, these Hollywood journalists and these producers, they are stunned <\/emphasize>that people have an interest in seeing this movie. <\/line>Now, what does that tell us, that they are stunned? And they are so stunned that they are retracting their criticism. When do they ever do that? When do you ever hear these ivory-tower muckety-mucks retract their criticism and want to get in on the bandwagon? When do you hear that happen? I don\u2019t. When I hear people of this elite nature offer criticism they stick with it for the rest of their lives; it becomes part of their being. The Passion, which opened yesterday on over 4,500 screens in 3,000 theaters, “set a record for the biggest opening day for a movie released outside the summer and winter holiday months…. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) retracted critical remarks made about the film last April by its ecumenical and interreligious committee, which suggested that the film might be anti-Semitic.”<\/line>Now, this really steamed me. Who is this group? the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Now, we know they\u2019re a bunch of liberals. But still, take that away. They\u2019re Catholics. This is a movie about what these people profess to be experts in! This is a movie about what these people teach others to believe and learn — and these are the experts! These are the fathers, if you will, and they <\/emphasize>are so scared. They are so scared of a movie they didn\u2019t even see that they had to run with the critics and say, “Anti-Semitisc! We don\u2019t want to be…” They didn\u2019t even have the guts to stand up for this, and it\u2019s about them<\/emphasize>! <\/line>It\u2019s about who they are, and they didn\u2019t have the guts to stand up — and now they want to get back in. Now that the American people are going to see the movie in droves, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Ah, forget it, forget it. We want to be back in.<\/emphasize> “In remarks released Wednesday on the Catholic news service, three staff members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops office fulfillment broadcasting is the film might be overly violent but it\u2019s not anti-Semitic now.” What business did you people have saying it was anti-Semitic anyway? You know that there\u2019s no anti-Semitism in the story of the crucifixion. That\u2019s not what it\u2019s about. Why did you join the chorus of detractors of a movie made by a man of your faith about what you do? <\/line><\/p>\n

Because you\u2019re gutless. These are gutless people. Now, if gutless people are standing up, how can gutless people stand up for Jesus Christ? They ran away from this, and now of course, “Can we come back in? Can we come back in? I guess there\u2019s no anti-Semitism now.” I saw this movie in July. I\u2019ve been telling anybody who\u2019s asking me: “There\u2019s no anti-Semitism in the movie. I know anti-Semitism when I see it. It\u2019s all over the Middle East. That\u2019s where anti-Semitism is. It\u2019s all over France. It\u2019s all over Germany. I know it when I see it. It isn\u2019t here.” <\/line>Anti-Semitism is not in Georgia. It\u2019s not in Mississippi. It\u2019s not in New York. It\u2019s not in Wisconsin or wherever. This is just mind-boggling to me. “The Hollywood film company, DreamWorks, also back away from remarks published in yesterday\u2019s New York Times suggesting that Hollywood producers will blacklist Mr. Gibson. Quoting unnamed studio execs, the article said ‘some of Hollywood\u2019s biggest producers were angry over Gibson\u2019s refusal to repudiate remarks made by his father.'” His father had nothing to do with the movie! <\/line>Anyway, Jeffrey Katzenberg was the one of the people mentioned in the New York Times but not quoted, and he\u2019s put out a statement saying [paraphrased], “No, we didn\u2019t feel this way. The Times story got us wrong.” Which is fine. But there were a bunch of them that spoke without attribution, and this business of dumping this on his dad is BS, anyway. That\u2019s not why they opposed Gibson and that\u2019s not why they opposed this movie. The dad, Gibson\u2019s dad, just gave them a convenient thing to lean on. <\/line>They didn\u2019t like Gibson because they didn\u2019t like the subject matter of the movie. That\u2019s all it is, and this is why the story in the New York Times yesterday did not move me, because it\u2019s not a surprise to me. How many times have we discussed here how conservatives can\u2019t work in Hollywood? Okay, how many blacklist stories over the years have there been about Hollywood people? So, okay, here\u2019s another one, yip yip yip yip yahoo! I apologized for not bringing it to your attention but I\u2019m telling you, folks: it\u2019s nothing new. <\/line>This may be the most glaring, gutless example of it — and also I would say the most panicked. You\u2019ve got a movie here that\u2019s going to outdo 90% of the trash that comes out of that town, and not one of those people in that town had anything to do with it. Mel Gibson did it all himself. It\u2019s his money; it\u2019s his production company. There\u2019s not a person in that town can lay a hand of credit on this thing. No agent, no studio, nothing. And they thought it was going to bomb. Now it\u2019s going to be bigger than 90% of the stuff that they make. So I read a story they\u2019re going to blacklist him. Yeah, so what? Who\u2019s surprised? I\u2019m sorry I didn\u2019t bring it to your attention yesterday. <\/line>(COMMERCIAL BREAK)<\/line><\/p>\n

I realize, ladies and gentlemen, we\u2019re only into our second day of showings of “The Passion of the Christ,” but I want to know: Where are the roving bands of hateful Christians throughout the streets of America wreaking havoc and violence on the innocent and harmless people of this country? Where is this happening? Remember all of these predictions? You know, all of this panicked outcry: “Why, why, anti-Semitism! Why…” This movie doesn\u2019t create any anti-anything. This movie, you\u2019ve talked to people who have seen it. I hope you have. This is unlike any movie experience anybody\u2019s ever had. <\/line>There\u2019s no agenda. There\u2019s no call to action. There\u2019s no nothing here, folks. This is one of the most personal experiences a moviegoer will ever have, so personal it is going to be difficult for you to tell people what you felt. It\u2019s going to be difficult to tell people what you thought. You\u2019ll be able to, but it\u2019s going to be difficult. But this is, this whole thing, it just continues to boggle the mind in a way.<\/line>The presumptions that are made about people who are law-abiding, peaceful, don\u2019t cause anybody any trouble, about how they\u2019re the ones that are going to causing all the trouble. The people that are causing all the trouble, the people causing “civil disobedience,” the people blowing up buildings, they\u2019re always excused. They\u2019re always explained. We\u2019re always told, “We have to take into account their socioeconomic and psychological circumstances so we understand why they\u2019re doing what they\u2019re doing.” And then people who don\u2019t engage in destructive, harmful behavior at all are pointed to and warned that they\u2019d better keep their place.<\/line>In the meantime, the guy that makes the movie is being told the industry in which he is an overwhelming financial, professional success may not want him anymore. Blacklisting? Blacklisting communists was wrong, but blacklisting conservatives is okay. Yeah. I\u2019m not even — forget the blacklisting in the past. I\u2019m just saying Hollywood is famous for it. I don\u2019t care who got blacklisted. That\u2019s all I\u2019m saying is when I saw that story yesterday, “Yeah, ho-hum. What\u2019s new?” I\u2019ve apologized, what do you want me to do? Want me to spank myself? What have I got to do?<\/line>END TRANSCRIPT<\/line><\/p>\n

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The story in the New York Times was all about how Mel Gibson will never work in that town again because of his movie. The New York Times quoted, unnamed Hollywood executives saying he\u2019s ruined his career; he doesn\u2019t have a chance here, and the story. 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